|
CITY OF VANCOUVER ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT |
Date: |
January 15, 2005 | |
Author: |
Sue Harvey | |
Phone No.: |
604-871-6001 | |
RTS No.: |
4825 | |
CC File No.: |
2051 | |
Meeting Date: |
February 3, 2005 |
TO: |
Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets |
FROM: |
Acting Director, Office of Cultural Affairs |
SUBJECT: |
2005 Operating Budget - Strategic Investment in the City's Cultural Services |
INFORMATION
THAT Council receive for INFORMATION this report outlining a new base level of civic cultural investment in 2005; approval and funding to be deferred to the 2005 Interim Operating Budget and detailed recommendations arising from the Creative City strategic planning process.
CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The City Manager puts the recommendation forward for Council's information as part of the 2005 Operating Budget.
COUNCIL POLICY
Since 1991 the City's stated policy objective has been "to ensure our future as a creative city, open and accessible to artists, to the broadest range of artistic expression, and to the widest participation." Council has approved and implemented a series of policies, grants programs, facilities development initiatives and other cultural programs and strategies to achieve those objectives.
In December 2005 City Council approved the creation of a Creative City Task Force to undertake a stakeholder consultation process to identify strategic goals, directions and priority objectives together with recommendations for the City's role(s) in development of the arts, culture, community celebrations, and special events; and to consider the most suitable form and mandate of a community based committee to advise the City on an on-going basis on policy, programs and other initiatives related to the arts, events and cultural sector. At that time Council also approved in principle and subject to the 2005 budget process, a commitment to establish in 2005 a new base level of cultural investment as a signal to the creative sector and other prospective investment partners, subject to a report back with detailed recommendations following the strategic planning process.
PURPOSE
This report provides information on Council's recent direction to strengthen the creative community through an increase in the base level of civic cultural investment as informed by the Creative City Task Force strategic planning process.
BACKGROUND
The City fosters, encourages and supports arts and cultural activities, celebrations and special events through an array of programs and services administered through a variety of City departments. The current level of arts and cultural activity in the City is substantial. Last year more than 3 million people enjoyed live performances, screenings, exhibitions, festivals and special events.
However, the non-profit cultural sector is under-resourced and limited in its ability to sustain the current level of activity let alone grow and develop to its full potential. Limited funding continues to be a challenge. In Canada, non-profit arts and cultural organizations are generally supported through a combination of public, private and earned revenues. Vancouver's arts community has been most successful in attracting audiences and support through artistic adjudication processes. However Vancouver artists and art organizations still receive low levels of federal, provincial and regional funding per capita relative to the creative communities of other major City. And while the City's investment has helped to mitigate this long-standing shortfall, civic funding has neither kept pace with inflation, nor grown to meet rising costs or the increase in population seeking services or the growth in creative activities.
Within the City, cultural staff resources are also stretched. While the City has developed a reputation as a leader in municipal cultural planning, it has done so with comparatively limited resources.
While both the creative community and the city itself have been facing resource challenges,
we are uniquely positioned to create and capture a number of extraordinary opportunities over the next 6 - 10 years.
DISCUSSION
To begin to address the systemic resource issues and to capture new opportunities, Council has called for a strategic and pro-active approach to the development and delivery of the City's services to the arts, culture, celebrations, and special event. To realize this, in December Council approved the creation of a Creative City Task Force comprised of Council, community and staff representatives, to undertake a stakeholder consultation process to identify strategic goals, directions and priority objectives together with recommendations for the City's role(s) in development of the arts, culture, community celebrations, and special events; and the most suitable form and mandate of a community based committee to advise the City on an on-going basis on policy, programs and other initiatives related to the arts, events and cultural sector. Council also approved in principle and subject to the 2005 budget process and the recommendation of the Creative City Task Force, an increase to the civic cultural investment.
This increase signals the City's intent to the arts community and to other funders and private donors but also recognizes the need to move immediately to meet the many opportunities of the coming years including the World Urban Forum (2006) and the cultural programs of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (2006-2010). Staff are recommending an increase to the cultural base funding over three years commencing with an increase in 2005 of $1 million. To defer or minimize this increase to a future budget year will mean lost opportunities and diminish the community's participation in the Creative City Strategic Plan.
Current base level of grants:
The City of Vancouver currently provides an array of grant programs, the primary ones being project and operating grants. These grants provide funds in support of artistic creation, production, exhibition, marketing, administration and organisational development. They represent a percentage of the total cost of providing the services with the balance of funds coming from earned revenues (i.e. ticket sales) and public and private funding.
In 2004 the City provided a combined total of $7.291 million in cultural grants. This level of investment is significant and sounds adequate until it is put into context. Of the $7.291 million civic contribution, 50% of the funds are distributed to 5 organizations - the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver Maritime Museum, Vancouver Museum, Science World and the H.R. McMillan Space Centre. These organizations provide important cultural services and programs which serve not just Vancouver, but the region and province. Despite the City's significant level of investment even some of these organizations are under-resourced.
Of the remainder, a further 50% of the grants budget goes to offset the rental of the Vancouver Civic Theatres. Again this provides much needed access for larger performing arts organizations to the three theatres owned by the City. What remains of the total grants budget, approximately 25%, or $1.9 million, is available to fund the operating, projects, celebrations, diversity, opportunities and organizational development initiatives of the 165 annual grant recipient organizations. Clearly this is not adequate to meet the needs of this large and growing sector.
While the sector continued to grow, the City's contribution, for the most part, has been limited to modest inflationary increases over the past ten years. Over that period, the value of the City's funding for operating and project grants declined in real terms by 12% as the City's inflationary increases have lagged behind CPI resulting in a growing gap between the value of the City's grant and actual costs. During the same time period, grant recipients' expenditures grew by 38%. Although attendance has increased, private sector donations have not filled the gap. Collectively, these changes challenge the sustainability of the existing cultural sector and create a barrier to new and emerging artists.
There are several approaches to begin to address the funding challenge - including strategic approaches to senior and neighbouring governments, Olympic Partners, corporate and industry partners, foundations, and private individuals. These structural funding issues will be engaged in full in the context of the larger Creative City consultation process. Staff believe, however, that a declared commitment and leadership by the City is necessary to convince other funding partners to follow suit and recommend the addition of $1 million to the 2005 Operating Budget, subject to Council's approval of the 2005 Budget and any recommendations arising from the Creative City Task Force strategic planning process.
Potential allocations:
Without prejudging the community inputs and recommendations of the Creative City Task Force, staff have identified the need for a significant increase to the City's current base level of cultural funding and recommend that this increase be phased in with $1 million in additional funding added to each of the next three years. Specifically in 2005, staff are recommending a $1 million increase to the City's current base level of civic funding to be available within the 2005 Operating Budget to begin to address some of the immediate challenges in the level and delivery of grants to the community including:
· an increase to the operating grants budget;
· an increase to the project grants budget;
· capacity building initiatives; and
· the necessary staff resources to deliver the City's cultural programs.
Final recommendations will be reported back in the spring as part of the Creative City Task Force Strategic Plan.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
It is recommended that as part of the 2005 Budget Consideration that $1 million be allocated to the Office of Cultural Affairs. It is also recommended that this funding be maintained and increased by $1 million over each of the following three years ($1 million in 2005, $2 million in 2006 and $3 million in 2007) to address some of the immediate challenges in the level and delivery of cultural grants and services to the community.
CONCLUSION
To achieve the vision of Vancouver as a Creative City and to capitalize on the potential of our creative community staff recommend an increase to the City's current base level of cultural investment. This investment will leverage support from other public and private sources, will help the community achieve its potential bringing activities, social cultural and economic benefits to Vancouver.
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